Former PM Deve Gowda writes to Karnataka CM seeking withdrawal of controversial textbooks

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In the wake of recent protests in Karnataka over the alleged saffronisation of school textbooks, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda has written to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai demanding the withdrawal of textbooks revised recently by the Rohith Chakrathirtha committee appointed by the ruling BJP government in the state.
“The mistakes and injustices that exist in the revised textbook cannot be corrected by mere cosmetic changes. The revised textbooks should be withdrawn and the previous textbooks that were revised by 27 committees working under the leadership of Baraguru Ramachandrappa must be utilised for the current academic year,” Deve Gowda has said in a letter to Bommai dated June 20.
The former prime minister, who participated in a large protest held in Bengaluru on June 18 over the saffronisation of the textbooks by the Chakrathirtha-led committee, has written to the Karnataka chief minister as an extension of the demands raised at the protest last week.
Responding to the letter, Bommai said: “A letter has been written about the changes in the school textbooks. I will be meeting the officials of the education department and the minister tomorrow and will take a detailed look at the letter and the suggestions in it and whatever is possible will be done.”
In his letter to the chief minister, Janata Dal (Secular) party president Deve Gowda has said that the newly revised textbooks are devoid of values like social justice, equality, and secularism. “It is clearly evident that the values of social justice, equality, secularism and universal humanity, that were professed by Dr Ambedkar and Kuvempu, have been ignored in the textbook revision exercise,” Deve Gowda stated.
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